Marino Muñoz Lagos (1925-2017) is a Chilean poet with fourteen published books. In 1971 he won the Municipal Poetry Prize of Santiago. In 1992 he was granted the Culture and Arts Prize. In 1994 he won the Municipal Prize for Literature in Punta Arenas and in 1995 the literary criticism prize granted by the National Council on Books and Culture. In 2001 he became a corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Language, the same year he won the Patrimony Prize from the Foundation of Culture and the Arts. In 2004 he won the Presidential Medal for the Pablo Neruda Centenary. 2007 brought him the title of "Illustrious Citizen of Magallanes". He was named "Illustrious Son" of Punta Arenas, Chile, the southernmost city on the South American continent in 2015. He taught school most of his life, and he spent over 40 years as a columnist for the daily La Prensa Austral and the weekly El Magallanes. His poetry has appeared in more than twenty anthologies. Fellow Chilean writer Nicomedes Guzmán once said "Marino Muñoz Lagos could have only been a schoolteacher. Fate, however, bestowed upon him a special merit: that of poet."